I first heard about it from a woman I worked with whose daughter was in love with the show. She drew me a picture (the daughter did) of her favorite character in the series who’s a guy named Neji. I assumed that since she was a child and this was a cartoon that this was a cartoon for children. I didn’t think anything else about it.

Neji Hyuga

After some time had gone by, maybe a couple months, I was at my cousin’s house and he asked me if I watched Naruto. I told him I'd never seen it, but I’d heard of it before. And then, this grin started to spread across his face. It was the “I know a secret that you don’t,” grin. He said, “Check this out,” as he walked over to the computer and started typing. YouTube came up. Then he started to show me all these fight-scenes from the cartoon to impress me.

You see, Naruto is a cartoon about ninja.

Zabuza Momochi - Demon of the Hidden Mist

I watched a few video clips, some of which had music added to them, but none of them really impressed me. They were just some random characters fighting other random characters, and I had seen better fights before. So, I passed on Naruto for a second time.

I didn’t pass on it a third time.

Luckily, my friend Karl came by one day and I was showing him how my computer was connected to my TV. He asked if he could use the computer to watch Naruto. I let him, and then I sat and watched it with him.

Karl didn’t show me random fight clips and he didn’t start from the beginning. He started with episode 48, then 49, then 50. Then he went home and I wanted to know, “What happens next?” and “What happened before?”

Gaara and Lee in episode #48

Thanks to Karl, I went back to episode 1 and learned that Naruto is an orphan and an outcast. In the episodes after that, I learned why so many people love this story. (Just wait until you see episode 17!)

The story of Naruto has made me laugh and made me cry. It's made me call and text the people who recommended it to me with words like, “Dude! This is crazy! Whaaaaaaaat?!...,” and it's made me receive the same phone calls and the same texts from the people I recommended it to. And the story is not even complete.

So… if you’re ready for that kind of drama, start at episode 1.
Or, do what I did and start at episode 48.

And if you're already familiar with the series, let us know what you think about it -- either in the comments section below or in the Forum. Then, come back and see my definitive guide on Naruto where I’ll explain: